March 2021 • Macworld 115
an embedded web page link. (QR
Codes also embed Wi-Fi network
information, contact cards and much
more.) You may find QR Codes in the
wild, though they sometimes appear
on web pages in digital media. To scan
a QR Code, make sure that in iOS or
iPadOS that at Settings > Camera,
Scan QR Codes is enabled.
DOES SAFARI ALWAYS
REQUEST FRESH LOGINS
TO YOUR SITES?
The whole system of web browsing
and web servers was designed
to be ‘stateless’: each page load
is disconnected from each other.
Cookies were invented in the very
early days to serve as a kind of
breadcrumb (or cookie crumb). When
you log in to a website, the primary
method of preserving state – of
keeping an active session in which
you’re remembered from page to page
- is dropping a cookie to your browser
that your browser in turn sends back
every time it requests a page. Thus is
the web crudely knit together. (With
web apps, even though you’re on what
appears to be a single page, all the
behind-the-scenes interaction still
sends cookies.)
One Macworld reader finds
themselves constantly prompted
in Safari to log in again when they
visit any site, and they’re unclear
why. I suspect an excess of privacy - or maybe just the right amount – is
bedevilling them. One of the following
scenarios is likely.
Block All Cookies. Safari for iOS,
iPadOS, and macOS lets a user
prevent their browser from accepting
Setting Safari to block all cookies prevents many websites from letting you
maintain a session.
March 2021 • Macworld 115
an embedded web page link. (QR
Codes also embed Wi-Fi network
information, contact cards and much
more.) You may find QR Codes in the
wild, though they sometimes appear
on web pages in digital media. To scan
a QR Code, make sure that in iOS or
iPadOS that at Settings > Camera,
Scan QR Codes is enabled.
DOES SAFARI ALWAYS
REQUEST FRESH LOGINS
TO YOUR SITES?
The whole system of web browsing
and web servers was designed
to be ‘stateless’: each page load
is disconnected from each other.
Cookies were invented in the very
early days to serve as a kind of
breadcrumb (or cookie crumb). When
you log in to a website, the primary
method of preserving state – of
keeping an active session in which
you’re remembered from page to page
- is dropping a cookie to your browser
that your browser in turn sends back
every time it requests a page. Thus is
the web crudely knit together. (With
web apps, even though you’re on what
appears to be a single page, all the
behind-the-scenes interaction still
sends cookies.)
One Macworld reader finds
themselves constantly prompted
in Safari to log in again when they
visit any site, and they’re unclear
why. I suspect an excess of privacy - or maybe just the right amount – is
bedevilling them. One of the following
scenarios is likely.
Block All Cookies. Safari for iOS,
iPadOS, and macOS lets a user
prevent their browser from accepting
Setting Safari to block all cookies prevents many websites from letting you
maintain a session.